John Obi Mikel’s first ever goal in the Premier League helped ease the pressure on Jose Mourinho as Chelsea beat Fulham 2-0 in a drab encounter at Stamford Bridge.
The midfield anchor picked up his first strike in 258 matches for the Blues as he beautifully struck an acrobatic finish with minutes remaining.
The goal masked a game of two halves for Chelsea, who struggled to gain a foothold initially. Despite having much of the ball they found opportunities hard to come by, raising further questions about the bizarre omission of creative spark Juan Mata from the matchday squad.
Instead it was the Cottagers’ Darren Bent who had the first real sight of goal but the England striker wasted his opportunity. Pajtim Kasami picked him out but with all the time in the world he tamely put his effort straight at Petr Cech.
The Blues were frustrated to only a few efforts none of which troubled keeper David Stockdale and the match appeared to be heading for a low scoring affair early into proceedings.
At half-time the boos rang out to little surprise with Chelsea fans demanding an improvement in tempo.
A frankly dreadful encounter was always going to require a mistake or moment of genius to open it up and so it proved with Oscar being the benefactor of the former.
Stockdale, who had little to do during the first half, suddenly looked like he had been dozing when he inexplicably spilled a ball into Samuel Eto’o’s path.
The Cameroonian could not finish but Oscar made no mistake as he simply stroked the ball home from the resulting goalmouth scramble.
Minutes later and Steve Sidwell should have had Fulham level but the former Blues midfielder was taken by surprise as he headed over from just yards out.
Chelsea’s goal and near miss from Sidwell finally woke the sleeping giant as they began to find each other with passes and were unfortunate to not be awarded a penalty when Ramires was tripped.
Substitute Fernando Torres served Mourinho a reminder of his talents when he escaped his marker and engineered a brilliant header but he found Stockdale to be his match.
It would matter little though as Mikel picked up his late goal to send the Blues top, even if it does prove to be temporary, and send the Chelsea fans home happy. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Kudos to Mike, up blues!!
ReplyDeleteThe people wey dey hold the guy don free am ooo. Am happy for him sha. He deserves it.
ReplyDeleteI WANTED TO BECOME A REVEREND SISTER – BEVERLY OSU
Finally, MIKE has break the YOKE!
ReplyDelete